FAQ

What is Chain Reaction?

Who we are

Founded in 2011, Chain Reaction: Alternatives to Calling Police is a volunteer-run initiative of Project NIA, a grassroots community organization in Chicago that aims to end youth incarceration. We started with the premise that every time a young person has police called on them or encounters police in school or their neighborhood, a negative chain reaction may be set off. Police contact leads to more police contact and state intervention, ultimately feeding the hyper-criminalization of Black and Latinx youth living in segregated neighborhoods.

A group of volunteers partnered with youth organizations focused on LGBTQ youth and others directly affected by the school-to-prison pipeline and frequent police interaction. Together, the youth told and recorded their stories about police encounters. Then adult and youth volunteers worked to create curriculum about a new kind of chain reaction--one in which community interventions reduce, rather than increase, contact with police.

We asked, what were the points of intervention that could have prevented police involvement? What would an alternative chain reaction look like? What resources, skills, and imaginative powers do we have in our communities to address violence and harm while reducing police presence?